


Deep Dark Sea

by IRegretNothingAndEverything



Series: HLVRAI Mermaid AU [1]
Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Bubby singing for Coomer, Coomer is a mantis shrimp, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, SO, Singing, and two i thought i planned this as just frenrey?, benrey is a dragonfish, but g-man is a bit bigger than tommy, but one that's background and doesn't... not important enough to tag i dont think, cause that's just canon at this point bro, darnold is a goblin shark, falling asleep together, forzen is a pyrosome colony, gay people real, gordon accidentally scaring bubby a lot, gordon is a gulper eel, i dont mind doing it frenreylatta but what?, maybe a lil bit on purpose but when else could he do that jaw thing?, mermaid au, really soft, slight body horror, this had a frenreylatta tag at one point..., tommy and g-man are giant oceanic manta rays, uh, unlocking your friends tragic backstories, weird mouth shit from Darnold and Gordon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 20,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26111164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IRegretNothingAndEverything/pseuds/IRegretNothingAndEverything
Summary: Bubby ends up in the bottom of the sea, which... he's not surrounded by idiots anymore, so that's wonderful. Still, he's not completely sure what he's supposed to be doing down here, watching monitors, and finding nothing. It got boring after awhile, but hey. Better than being in a normal Black Mesa research facility.
Relationships: Bubby/Dr. Coomer (Half-Life)
Series: HLVRAI Mermaid AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1905055
Comments: 54
Kudos: 190





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Ocean Isn’t So Scary](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24329575) by [CrackheadMossMan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrackheadMossMan/pseuds/CrackheadMossMan). 



> Uhh... SO I'M DOING THIS NOW ALKDNFSIENFW

Bubby had loved two places his entire existence: Space, and the Ocean. Both mostly unexplored and mysterious. It was easier to look up at the stars and wonder what it would be like to float out there unburdened, but that didn’t stop him from pouncing on the opportunity to go down into the ocean for a few months. How many wasn’t... exactly specified, but however long he was down here alone was fine with him. 

It was just... well it was boring, really. He couldn’t see out the windows well, since there was no sun down here, and there really wasn’t much to do but check and recheck that he wasn’t randomly going to be crushed as the housing buckled under the pressure of the water, and then settle to watch whatever mindless entertainment they had sent down here with him. 

So, yea, maybe Bubby was bored. But at the very least, they had let him keep his IPod on him, which was currently the best form of distraction he had available. Seeing as he was alone, and no one would be bothered by his screeching, he sang along to anything that came on as he worked. 

Power room, the filters, observation deck, he sang. Bubby knew his voice wasn’t the best, but at this point, he didn’t care, since he could just turn the music up loud enough that he couldn’t hear himself, and go about his day. 

He often did it in the docking station, since he liked to check up that his small sub wasn’t going to break while he was out in open ocean, just bopping along to whatever song he was listening to at that moment. Bubby did this at least twice a day, going through when he woke up, and before he went to bed, being maybe just a bit over cautious about it, but hey. He didn’t want to die at the bottom of the ocean. 

So, his usual routine of going about the sub bay, bouncing very slightly as he walked around, checking through everything, singing loudly. 

“ _He’s the one they call Dr. Feelgood_...” He trailed off for a second, still mumbling along as he leaned a bit closer to try and read the dials with his glasses half down his nose. He pulled back again, voice raising again. “ _He's gonna be your Frankenstein_!” 

Bubby flipped around, eyes darting down to the water for a split second before he shrieked, jerking back against the wall, eyes wide. He stared down at the water for a moment, a pair of nearly human green eyes peering up at him from the darkness for a moment more before whatever it was sunk back down out of his line of site. 

He stared for a moment, before turning and leaving the sub bay, shutting the door tightly behind him. Not today. That was not happening. He could deal with that after he got up tomorrow. Bubby was going to bed. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not one hundred on what I'm going to do with this, but! Things are gonna happen and we are gonna get the gay grandpas we deserve.

Bubby couldn’t fall asleep. He curled in his bunk, laying in the near silence, the only sound being the soft creaking of the metal holding back millions of gallons of water. He didn’t want to put his headphones back in, just in case anything happened and he heard something going on in the other room, any sign that... whatever it was returned. 

He couldn’t get those eyes out of his head. Staring up at the dark ceiling, all he could see was the green. They looked... so close to human, like something trying to be human and being off by just an inch, the pupil almost segmented, just barely, and Bubby couldn’t think of any deep sea animal with eyes like that. 

So he lay there, staring up at the ceiling, unable to get just how green those eyes were out of his head. He couldn’t remember seeing anything that green.   
After a moment, Bubby sat up scowling. If he couldn’t fall asleep, he had to confront it, and yet... he hesitated. He wasn’t used to hesitating, so pushed past it, grabbing his headphones again, hooking them around his ears rather than in like he normally would. Like that, he wouldn’t sing as loudly as normal, but loud enough that hopefully... whatever it was would come back. 

Bubby pretend it was just a normal day. Well... he actually didn’t know what time it was, but he acted like it was normal, going about his normal routine, but pausing for just a moment in front of the door to the sub bay. He really hoped that it returned, but... it was also kind of terrifying. What even was it? A human couldn’t survive down here, but... it wasn’t really human was it? Just... their eyes looked it. 

He shook his head quickly, pushing open the door to go around his normal rounds, singing along to his music softly. Bubby kept an ear out for any sort of water movement behind him, as he worked, but heard nothing. It didn’t worry him, since it had stayed under the water last time he had seen it, so it was probably just being safe like last time. 

When he turned again, however, eyes tracking quickly across the near black water, he saw no green. Bubby frowned down at the water, taking a few steps closer to peer in, but still... nothing. No eyes peering at him from the darkness of the water. Bubby sighed softly, shaking his head, shifting to put one of his earbuds actually in his ear. He’d been imagining it, hadn’t he? God, he’s going crazy down here. 

Laughing softly at himself, Bubby left the sub bay, just barely missing as the creature shifted up towards the water top, peeking the top of it’s head through to watch him leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coomer's head has now made an appearance. Soon he shall actually appear.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey... Coomer POV time babey

Coomer sunk back into the water after watching the human leave the bay, slowly sinking down under the base, eyes wide. He just... sounded so beautiful. The sound of the human’s singing had never hit him as hard as it had now, and, even with how rough the human’s voice was, it was... it was memorizing. 

He didn’t really swim away from the base, but kicked once, propelling himself through the water and letting himself float away, lost in the thoughts of this human singing these wonderful songs for him, leaning against the edge of the bay with the human sitting next to him, as they sang together, and-

“Coomer?” He blinked, shifting and turning himself over, as Gordon watched him quietly. Just barely peeking out from under Gordon’s tail was Joshua, the little blob fish staring head dead eyed as usual, but Coomer still felt a rush of affection for the little fish. 

“Hello Gordon!” Coomer smiled, and Gordon raised an eyebrow at him, crossing his arms. 

“What was that about?” 

Coomer paused, blinking at him slowly. “What was what about?” 

“You, floating upside down with that-...” Gordon broke off suddenly, before he smirked, and Coomer’s eyes went wide, and he turned off to the side, trying to swim off before Gordon could tease him. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t the fastest, and Gordon caught up easily, Joshua swimming next to them quickly. “So... who is it?” 

“I’m not sure what you mean, Gordon.” 

“Oh no, you know exactly what I mean, Coomer, you had that love sick look in your eyes when you were floating around back there.” Gordon sped up suddenly, cutting off Coomer and spinning a tight circle around him, keeping him trapped for just a second. “Come on Coomer!” 

“I have been trying with you and Benrey for who knows how long now, and you try to flip this on me because you saw me once?” Coomer spun in a careful circle to follow Gordon’s head as Gordon continued to swim around him, trying to find a way out of the rather tight circle that Gordon had gotten him trapped in. 

“Yeah, but you’ve never shown interest in anyone! Besides, I haven’t heard of anyone new being around.” Coomer huffed a soft sigh, before ducking under the tight coil, causing Gordon to follow and knot his tail for a second. It was enough to give Coomer a head start on following him, and Gordon swam after him, Joshua trailing after his tail. “Coomer!” 

“Hey, uh what’s goin on here?” Benrey was a fast little bastard, and, as the two of them passed where the others had gathered, managed to not only outpace Gordon, but get up next to Coomer. “Why we runnin from Cringeman?” 

“Don’t-” 

“Coomer got all lovesick!” Gordon called up, and Coomer dodged under Benrey as he froze, going back towards Tommy, Forzen, Darnold, the last of two who was swimming in slow careful circles around the other two, as Forzen seemed to stare into nothing. Coomer sighed, slowing down enough to settle next to Tommy, who smiled up at him. 

“Hi Coomer! What’s this about being lovesick?” Coomer huffed a sigh, crossing both set of arms. 

“I just... heard someone singing is all. It was rather nice and I suppose I got distracted.” He admitted carefully, and reached out one hand to pet Joshua as he passed, trailing after Gordon as he usually did. Gordon matched Darnold’s slow circle, the goblin shark humming and butting against Gordon once as he did. 

“Oh?” Tommy perked up. “You don’t normally care for people singing.” Coomer frowned around them, before nodding. 

“I... I can show you, if you want. He won’t be singing again for a little while, but I’ll know when he does it again, and I can bring you guys over so you can hear it too.” He didn’t... want to really share it, but it was either do so, or have them follow him ‘stealthily’ when he went to go listen to the human again. He... also didn’t know how to tell them it was a human that had gotten him so wrapped up. 

“You-You don’t have to, Coomer.” Tommy piped up, and Coomer blinked, realizing they had started watching him. He smiled, shaking a hand. 

“No, it’s fine. I’d be happy to share, he... sounds amazing... I think you should be exposed to it too... I just... have to warn you that...” He paused, then glanced back towards where he knew the base to be, frowning. “He’s human.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coomer be like: falls in love with a man he heard sing once.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More with Coomer, cause I love him a whole lot, and he's really gay for Bubby singing rn.

It took some... convincing, to say the least. Getting a group of mer to go close enough to a human base to hear them singing, was insane, basically a death wish, but Coomer was adamant. The Human wouldn’t hurt them, and they all just had to hear him, if they heard him they would understand and-

They caved eventually, just in time really, and Coomer led them back over towards the base, peeking through the windows carefully as he passed them. Gordon hissed at him to stay back, but he knew the Human’s schedule by now. He wasn’t here. That meant he was getting close to the pool, and Coomer grinned, swimming off rather quickly, suspending himself underneath it.

Gordon huffed, holding Joshua with one arm and dragging him along as he followed, Benrey clinging to his tail as they went along. Darnold shifted behind Forzen, who was simply floating in whatever current had him, and flicked his tail to send the pryosomes over closer, where Benrey grabbed at his shoulder to stop him. Forzen looked over, raising an eyebrow at them, before looking upwards at the light of the pool.

“How did they manage this...” Gordon asked softly, and Coomer shrugged his shoulders, shushing him carefully. Any moment now...

The door was pushed open, and the Human’s voice filtered through, slightly muffled by the water.

“ _Yesterday... All my troubles seemed so far away_.” Coomer floated up a bit more, having never heard the Human sing this one, such a calm melody when he usually favored something louder, brasher. “ _Now it looks as though they're here to stay_...”

Gordon shifted one hand up, catching the end of Coomer’s tail to tug him down as Coomer listened carefully, a faint smile coming to his face. Tommy frowned slightly, leaning over to Darnold. “Does it sound... sad to you to?” He asked quietly, as not to disturb Coomer’s trance, and Darnold nodded slightly.

The Human continued to sing, and Coomer stared upwards towards him, the water blurring his perception just a bit, but even so, Coomer was glad he had kept the schedule the same, still sung even after seeing his eyes, which... he should probably tell the others that had happened.

“ _Love was such an easy game to play... Now I need a place to hide away_.” The Human seemed to be finishing with whatever it was that he had to do in this room, and Coomer shifted just a bit closer again, though Gordon didn’t seem to notice as Joshua had slid from his grasp for a moment. “ _Oh, I believe in yesterday_...” The song trailed off, as the Human turned, and glanced towards the water, just as Gordon finally spotted Coomer and yanked him back down.

The Human stared down into the water, looking almost disappointed, before turning and humming something a bit more like his usual style, upbeat and loud, and the door shut behind him, cutting off the music, and Coomer grinned upwards, having watched him until he couldn’t see the Human any longer.

Gordon watched him sink slightly, and sighed, shaking his head. “Coomer you’ve gotta be more careful! He almost saw you!”

“Oh, he already saw me once, I don’t think it’s too much of a big deal.”

“He what?!” Gordon’s various fins flared for a second, and Coomer looked over.

“I have been around down here longer than you have, Gordon, you know that. He just saw my eyes, if anything, and I was gone, and he didn’t see me the next time, so he probably just brushed it off as his own imagination. He is alone down here you know.”

That brought a pause, before Tommy piped up behind him. “No... no school?”

Coomer shook his head sadly. “None that I’ve seen, in the windows or down here. He’s the only one.”

“Maybe that’s why he sounded so... sad.” Darnold spoke up, and Coomer frowned at him, thinking about the song for a moment. It had sounded a bit sad at the beginning, sure but...

“No, it ended on a hopeful note. Maybe he has a school up top and that’s why it sounded so hopeful?” Coomer hated the idea of loosing his human, but... well the human wasn’t his, and he really should stop thinking of him like that, but... He’d miss the music if the Human left.

“Whatever it was, let’s get away before he comes back out here and sees us?” Gordon flicked his tail at Forzen, who flipped him off as he was sent careening back towards their home, and Coomer sighed, watching them follow. With one last longing look up towards the pool, Coomer followed into the dark, the Human’s song stuck in his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bubby, or the Human as the mers know him, sings 'Yesterday' by Himesh Patel here, which is actually a boomer animatic on youtube as well, and it's really soft. Also I don't know how pyrosomes move, it doesn't... really seem like they do, so the others just kinda push Forzen around with the current. He can move on his own, a bit, but it's just really slow and it's easier for him to either be caught in a current or cling onto someone else. They like to fling him around with a current a lot though, cause it's fun.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forzen says one line and he's the MVP of this chapter cause gay reasons

Bubby was actually rather disappointed. He had gone out to that bay far more often for the past few days, singing along to whatever song it ended up being, and every time, he turned, hoping to catch some glimpse of those eyes in the water again, but still saw nothing. Each time he would look into the black water without a single hint of what he had seen, it discouraged him a bit further, and yet... 

He couldn’t fully convince himself that he had imagined it. 

Something was up down here, surely. He had seen something. Bubby was convinced of this much. He wouldn’t be so fixated on those eyes if he hadn’t actually seen something, right? 

He had found no excuse to go back into the bay at this point, so Bubby had to admit defeat for awhile, settling in the observation deck for now, where he had set up his bed and one of the random desktops. As he settled to reread one of the random books they had brought down-and Bubby would admit, maybe the romance books were nice, there was no one here to judge that anyways-he noticed a flicker of movement in the glass of his window. 

When he looked up, Bubby saw someone slowly begin to float by the window. He blinked once, setting the book down and going over towards the window. The top half of him was man, but the bottom half was a strange almost tube, and... were they pryosomes? Bubby had seen those before, but it was such a weird concept to realize that this man was made of pyrosomes.

As he floated past, the strange creature lifted it head, and waved at him, and, out of shock, Bubby waved back as he floated out of view. 

What the fuck had he just seen? Had he... actually seen that? 

Another moment, and someone else swam past, also waving a hand at him, and Bubby waved back at him. He processed it as the man swam out of view, that his bottom half was shrimp like and brightly colored, as well as having multiple pairs of arms, one human and one shrimp. Bubby only grew more confused, before the creature had turned back, the first in tow, hands under his arms. The mantis shrimp turned to grin at him, and Bubby felt the breath be knocked from his lungs. 

Green. Oh so green. 

Bubby pointed at him as he passed, and, in the dark, he just barely managed to catch the grin that the shrimp sent back, as the pyrosome colony just waved. 

He sat there in shock for a moment longer, before turning and booking it down the halls, skidding to a stop in the bay, eyes searching the dark water. 

* * *

Now Coomer wasn’t going to say that he had done this on purpose. He had no plans for the others to be seen by the human, but sometimes the current that Forzen often used to move just too much, the others getting too excited and shooting him off a bit too far. This time, Forzen just stared deadpan at them as he drifted off in the water, and Coomer sighed. He didn’t often go get him, but the moment he realized where Forzen was floating, he grinned, flipping through the water and swimming off after him, “I’ll get him” 

He got pretty close to catching him before he drifted past the window, but didn’t quite manage it, and Coomer noticed the Human standing in the window. Forzen waved at him, and, miraculously, the Human waved back. Coomer grinned, then also waved as he passed to go grab Forzen. The Human waved back. 

Coomer managed to hook his arms, not the shrimp ones, under Forzen’s shoulders, and turn to haul him back, not quite having the tail strength to flip the current like the others, and not wanting to try the shrimp arms. That was a dangerous game. As he swam past the window, Forzen in tow, he looked towards the Human, and saw the recognition in his eyes. The Human pointed at him, eyes going wide, and Coomer was forced to look away to make his way back towards the others, depositing Forzen with them and flipping in the water again, making his way back. 

“Coomer, where are you going?” Gordon called out. “He was just there, he won’t be back already!” 

“Yes he will!” He called back, and heard Forzen laugh. 

“He saw us.” Forzen hummed, blinking once as they group turned to stare at him. “What?” 

Coomer didn’t pay attention past that, going towards the bay and, through the water he knew the Human couldn’t see through, spotted him, kneeling next to the bay and looking into the water. 

This time, however, Coomer drifted up on purpose, sticking his head out of the water to stare right back at the Human. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo. Yo. They finally meet. gay babey!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy I love this AU now and I'm going. Look at them go!! Go Gayboy Go!

For a moment, the two of them stared at each other in silence, Bubby kneeling next to the pool, and the mantis shrimp poking his head out of the water, staring up at him. He couldn’t think of what to say here, just staring at that wonderful green. The mantis shrimp seemed to have nothing to say either, staring right back up at him, mouth open just a little as if in shock. 

The water rippled next to him, and another head poked out of the water. Bubby glanced over at him as he surfaced, and the mantis shrimp took that opportunity to shift, pulling himself up a bit to balance on the edge of the docking bay, his body drifting behind him. The other merman, as that was all Bubby could imagine them to be, was a bit too deep to see what exactly he was. Yet, he was the first to speak. 

“You’ve been listening to him sing for however long he’s been down here, and you don’t say a word now?” Bubby blinked, before looking towards the mantis shrimp, who pushed back off the wall and shoved the other’s head back down under water. 

“Don’t mind Tommy.” Bubby blinked, then nodded slightly, shifting to sit cross legged a bit back from the edge of the docking bay, so the mantis shrimp could hook his arms, the more human ones, on the edge again and hang there. “I’m.. Coomer.” 

“Bubby.” He answered softly, voice barely able to make a sound through his shock. This was a merman. A mantis shrimp merman, who had been listening to him singing? This entire time? 

Tommy popped back up again. “The entire time, Mr. Human, the entire time!” Coomer shot a look behind him, and Tommy disappeared back underwater, and Bubby blinked, seeing a large shape move away from the pool, what he assumed to be Tommy. He was deceptively big, how had he not seen that mass before? Was he flat? Some sort of manta ray then. 

“Uh...” Bubby’s eyes flicked back towards Coomer, who was frowning at him. “Are you alright? I know it’s a bit of a shock-” 

“Fine! Fine, just uh... Trying to figure out what... type of creature he was. I mean, you’re obvious, mostly, and I think I figured out the other one when he floated past, but uh, Tommy, I didn’t see until he... swam off.” Coomer nodded slightly, still staring up at him. 

“That’s alright. He’s probably going to go get the others anyways, you can meet the school.” Bubby blinked at him, then nodded slightly. 

“You’ve... been listening to me sing?” 

“Oh, only when you’re in here, that’s the only place I can really hear it. Your voice is lovely, I’m a little upset I couldn’t hear it through the windows so I could hear you more often.” Coomer shifted slightly, and his tail disappeared into the dark for a moment as it flicked down, then slowly floated back up. Bubby watched quietly, still trying to fully process what he was seeing. 

They sat like that for a moment, Coomer staring up at him, and Bubby staring back, before Coomer spoke again. “I like your eyes. They’re very nice.” 

“Oh... I mean, red’s a weird color-” 

“No, that’s... not red. I know red, that’s not quite it.” Bubby frowned at him. They were his eyes, and he had been subject to a lot of bullshit because they were red. He knew what color his eyes were. 

“No, I’m... pretty sure-” and then Bubby paused. Mantis shrimp had far more color receptors than a human had, didn’t they? Maybe Coomer just... saw something different than he did. “I mean... I guess they would look different to you, huh...” he trailed off, before shaking his head slightly. 

“I guess so. The others do say I see differently than them a lot. They tried to tell me humans didn’t have stripes!” Coomer leaned up, catching Bubby’s wrist in his hand carefully, pushing himself up with the shrimp arms to have his other hand free to trace something along Bubby’s arm. 

Bubby saw nothing, frowning at him a moment, before going with it. “Your eyes are very green. I don’t think I’ve seen anything that green before.” 

Coomer was still tracing the marks that only he could see, and paused, Bubby watching him flush before shooting a grin at him, looking back to his arm. “I dunno if they are green like green is to me... But I’m... glad you like them.” 

He almost snorted, turning his head and continued to let Coomer trace the lines along his arm, watching him out of the corner of his eye. As such, he watched the water ripple again, as the pyrosome colony he had seen before poked his head up, and then disappeared again. Bubby raised an eyebrow. “That uh... pyrosome colony-” 

“Forzen” 

“Yeah, uh, Forzen... What’s his deal?” 

"Oh, he just likes watching people.” Coomer glanced back, and must’ve been able to see where he sunk down into the water. He looked back towards Bubby’s arm. “Plus he has trouble swimming, so we move him with currents. So that just means the others are here too now.” 

“Others?” 

Coomer nodded. “You saw Tommy for a second, there’s Darnold, Benrey, and Gordon as well. Well, G-Man too, but he’s rarely around, so I don’t think he’s here. Also Gordon’s son Joshua, but Joshua is just a normal fish he adopted, so he can’t come up here like we can.” He hit the sleeve of Bubby’s shirt again and pouted, dropping back down onto his human arms. Bubby blinked, rubbing his arm slightly, almost missing his touch. 

He glanced over as another head popped up from the water, and Coomer looked over at him as well. “Hey Darnold. This is Bubby.” Darnold shifted up a bit more to lift a hand at him, slowly beginning to circle. Bubby looked at him quietly. 

“Shark?” Darnold grinned at him, and that only confirmed it to him. “So we have Benrey and Gordon left to see, right?” Coomer nodded slightly, and just then, Tommy resurfaced, grinning. 

“Benrey’s coming up soon!” 

Bubby was... honestly a bit overwhelmed, but said nothing, as another sharp toothed merman surfaced, black hair spread out around him. Bubby glanced at the others, who said nothing, looking back at this grunge looking man who had emerged from the deep. 

So maybe Bubby was a bit scared. This was fine. 

“Hey Benrey! Where’s Gordon?” 

“Uh being a lil... a lil bitch baby.” Bubby stared at the newly identified Benrey, eyes narrowed slightly, but was distracted from his thought as Coomer sighed, pushing himself off the wall. 

“I’ll get him.” and he disappeared into the water. Bubby stared after him, then glanced around at the others, who all stared at him dead faced. 

“... I have done nothing to deserve your ire.” He said, glaring around back at them, and Tommy huffed. 

“yeah, but we’ve never seen Coomer like this before. So... just know you won’t make it back to the surface to your school if you hurt him.” 

His school? This was a very strange school at this point, and Bubby sighed. “I don’t have one? So I don’t think it would matter that much if you killed me, I just don’t feel like dying.” 

For some reason, when he said that, they seemed upset at this, but weren’t able to say anything before Coomer’s tail appeared, as he scrambled up the side and managed to get his feet onto the level surface, backing up carefully as he dragged the most pissed off looking mer Bubby had ever seen. To be fair, he hadn’t seen a lot, but he knew anger when he saw it. 

This had to be Gordon. He was hanging from Coomer’s arms, hair plastered in his face, arms dangling. His hand had some pretty nasty claws on it, and the other was a scarred stump. Bubby tried to find his face in the mess of hair covering it, but was unable. 

“Here’s Gordon!” Coomer called, holding him up with apparently ease, though Bubby, looking down into the dark water, could not see the end of of his tail. He could see a small fish circling the tail that remained in the water. Just a normal fish. This caused him to laugh softly, looking back up at Gordon, who snarled at him and Bubby fell silent. “He didn’t want to meet you, but I wanted him to, so he’s gonna!” 

“I’m faster than you.” 

“And I’m stronger than you!” Coomer replied cheerfully, and dropped him back into the water. Gordon ducked down for a second, but only to slick the hair in his face back off of it, surfacing again to glare towards Bubby. He looked across the bay to look at Coomer completely out of the water for the first time he had seen him. He was just as brightly colored, if not more so than Bubby originally thought, without the dark water muffling the bright colors. Coomer shifted and dove back under, popping up in front of him, pulling himself back up into his original position and... 

Bubby forgot about the others, in favor of the green once more. Coomer seemed content, staring back at him, and they fell into silence again. 

“Jesus you two are gay-” 

Coomer dove at Tommy, and they disappeared under the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They just be gay y'know? 
> 
> Also the Gordon moment is gonna have art it's very wonderful and I shall post the tungle link when it is finished im hyped as shit.   
> EDIT: HERE HE IS IN ALL HIS ANGY GLORY: https://e-benrey.tumblr.com/post/627566472655437824/when-u-amgy-accompanying-e-bubby-s-writing


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bubby is like 'aw fuck. I'm in love with a fish.'

Coomer and Tommy disappeared under the water, Gordon flicked his head towards Bubby. Bubby stared back him, feeling a bit more than a little nervous, the dark glare on Gordon’s face scaring him a bit. He hadn’t even done anything. He wanted to run from that, but knew that he couldn’t, not down here, and instead stared back, keeping his face flat. He wasn’t going to let Gordon know he was scared.

Darnold’s eyes flicked between them for a moment, before he slowly sunk down in the water, leaving Benrey, who had yet to fully surface, just his eyes above the water, watching them quietly. It did nothing to ease his nerves, as his eyes began to flick between the two of them, trying to figure out if they were purposefully trying to threaten him or not. 

“I don’t trust you.” Gordon said, and Bubby looked away from Benrey, raising an eyebrow. 

“You think I trust you?” He answered, almost cursing his smart mouth. Now was not the time for this. Gordon shifted forwards in the water, eyes narrowed at him. Benrey disappeared under the water for a second, before reappearing next to Gordon, grabbing onto his arm and yanking it downwards. Gordon resisted it at first, but only long enough to send another glare at Bubby before disappearing under the water. 

For a moment, Bubby wondered if he was losing his mind. Then Coomer resurfaced, and Bubby didn’t actually care that much. “Sorry about... them. They’re a bit protective.” 

“Understandable. I don’t think the ocean is the safest place to live for anything.” Coomer smiled, pulling himself up on his human arms to hang on the edge of the bay like he had done the last few times, and Bubby smiled, shifting closer towards him slightly. “Still. Don’t appreciate Gordon glaring at me like that. I haven’t done anything.” 

“The people before you almost did... I think he’s worried, but I’ve been around longer than him, and humans aren’t usually jerks. They just... tend not to understand us.” He smiled sheepishly up at Bubby, who almost looked sad. 

“Yeah... Anything different from the norm and they don’t get it, huh?” Bubby said softly, before shaking his head, slouching down a bit and leaning his elbows on his knees, head in his hands to look down at him again. Coomer smiled up at him. “Is it rude of me to ask what happened to his arm?” 

To his surprise, Coomer laughed, and Bubby found himself distracted by it for a moment, eyes going wide. Coomer shifted, then ducked under the water, just barely, Bubby could still see him, and almost hear him calling something to Gordon. He resurfaced, grinning at him. “So. Gordon-” 

“Don’t listen to a word he says!” Gordon resurfaced, too fast for his hair again, which plastered itself all over his face. He growled, ducking under to surface right. 

“He got into a fight with a great white. Just a normal one, and when he came back, he tried to hide it from us.” Gordon surfaced again, almost pouting behind Coomer. “As if we don’t have Darnold who can smell his blood. He was obviously in pain, but the fact that he tried to hide it from us cause he was embarrassed about fighting a great white...” 

“Coomer, you are the worst type of person.” Gordon muttered, as Bubby snickered softly, looking back at him. For a second he watched, as Gordon tugged a lose piece of hair off of his face, then hummed, trying to think of a way to get him to trust him a bit more. Bubby stood suddenly. 

“I’ll be right back.” 

Why in the world they had given Bubby hair ties would elude him for as long as he was down here, but they were still there, in the pack they came in, and he slipped one onto his wrist, pausing for a moment, before grabbing a soda from the fridge, popping it open as he walked into the pool again, to find they had been joined by the others once more. Tommy had shifted himself up, and Bubby could see more of his form, but not all of it. How big was he, exactly, Bubby wondered idly, taking a sip of the soda and setting it next to Coomer, before circling around to Gordon. “Here. This’ll help.” 

Gordon pushed away from the edge of the pool to stare up at him suspiciously, and Bubby sighed, sitting there, motioning him back. “It’ll keep your hair out of your eyes, and I’m the only one who knows how that works.” Gordon seemed at least slightly swayed by that, and drifted closer, turning to let Bubby put his hair up. Once down, Bubby stood, circling back around to see Coomer holding the can of soda, staring at it with his head tilted. As Gordon disappeared under the water, obviously to see if Bubby was lying to him or not, Bubby settled back into his spot in front of Coomer, carefully taking the can from him to take another sip. 

Coomer watched this, before Bubby offered the can back to him. Coomer took it again, mimicking what he had seen Bubby do, before pulling back, blinking a few times. Bubby laughed, taking the can back from him, glancing up at the others watching him. “It’s soda.” He debated it a moment, before setting the can down again. “I’ll go grab some more.” 

He grabbed a few cans, and came back in just as Gordon surfaced, grinning. “It works!” Gordon spun around, having surface with his head down just to see, and Bubby nodded, setting down a soda can near him, opening it.   
“Told you.” He grinned, passing them around carefully, making sure to open each one for them, unsure if they could do so with the claws some of them had. When he passed one to Benrey, who surfaced enough for that, Benrey didn’t even go to drink it, just dug his teeth into the top of the metal. Bubby could respect that, settling back in front of Coomer, who had stolen his can for his own, grinning. 

Bubby watched on, not warning any of them of the carbonation, which brought mixed results, to his great pleasure. Still, they all seemed to go back to it, enjoying it at the very least, and Bubby hummed, looking down at Coomer. “You stole mine.” 

Coomer just grinned up at him, taking another sip. “So I did.” Bubby huffed in fake annoyance, but after a moment, grinned, snatching it back suddenly. 

“I don’t want to get up again. Guess we just have to share.” Coomer blinked, before grinning at him, eyes shining. It was strange, to get such a reaction from stealing his own soda back, but didn’t think much of it. 

“How long does this thing last?” Gordon spoke up, and Bubby looked up from him, saw him pointing at the hair tie. 

“I have no clue, but I do have more if that one breaks. Why they gave it to me when.” He gestured up at his own head, partially bald as he was. “I have no clue. But I have them.” He glanced around the others, wondering if they would need it, but Gordon seemed to be the only one having a major problem with it. 

Gordon nodded slowly, sending him a look that made him feel like Gordon still didn’t trust him. That was fine. A single hair tie shouldn’t make him trust... but it still made him uneasy. Gordon could kill him easily. Well... They all could, but that was besides the point. Gordon seemed to be the protector of the group, though he couldn’t tell if the others had injuries similar they were hiding in the dark water. He really couldn't’ tell much. 

“Will you sing again?” Coomer spoke up suddenly, and Bubby looked down at him, raising an eyebrow. 

“I can, though I’m still not sure why you like it that much...” He looked around for his IPod, seeing it across the bay on one of the tables. He shifted back to stand and grab it, but yawned as he stood, shaking his head. 

“I just like your voice... are you tired?” Coomer followed along the edge of the pool as Bubby walked. 

“Well, I was getting close to bed when I saw you two float past.” He grabbed the IPod, going to turn it on, only to find the battery dead. He frowned at it, and Coomer sighed. 

“You should sleep. Sleep is important for a healthy mind, Bubby!” Bubby looked over at him, then around at the others for a moment, as they slowly sipped at their sodas, getting used to the carbonation. 

He didn’t want to leave, but... well, now that they knew he knew about them, they would come back, right? At the very least, Coomer would, if only to hear him singing again. He nodded slightly lifting the IPod up a bit. “It’s dead anyways. Need to charge it. I’ll come back when I wake up. Just leave the cans around and I can get rid of them.” He yawned again, waving a hand back at them, watching Coomer for a moment, as he stared back, before slipping through the door and down the hall to his room. 

Laying there in the dark, hearing the faint sounds of them talking, since he hadn’t fully shut the door, Bubby realized something.   
He was completely, and utterly, fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The group gets soda now. Gordon also gets a hair tie. He needs it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gay Fish Rights!!!

Bubby woke up slightly confused, wrapped up in the blanket that he had thrown over himself before passing out. He sat up carefully, throwing a glance out the window and finding the expected nothing of the dark water. He tried to think if what had happened yesterday had actually happened. There was only one way to be sure, however, and Bubby sighed as he stood, moving to get dressed. He grabbed his IPod on a last thought, hanging the headphones off his ears as he walked down to the docking bay.

There they were. All the various soda cans around the bay, all empty, Benrey’s with various puncture holes in it from where he chewed on it. Bubby sighed, walking around the bay to pick them all up. They couldn’t have piled them up in one place to make it easier for him? Still, he gathered them, throwing them away before putting his headphones in properly to check that everything was still doing alright.

As per usual, he sang as he worked, but he consciously left the bay door open, wondering if Coomer could hear him from this deep in the base if he kept that door open. Bubby idly hoped so, checking oxygen levels and pressure as he walked through, recording them carefully in a notebook, just in case something went really off suddenly.

He stepped into the bay, but didn’t seem Coomer hanging off the deck like he had expected. Ignoring the disappointment, he walked around to the other side, back to the pool as he continue to sing to himself, bouncing with the energy of the song.  
With his back to the pool, he didn’t notice Coomer showing up again, pulling himself up to hanging off his arms, staring up at Bubby’s back. The tune sounded familiar to him, and he paused for a moment, actually listening.

“ _And the man at the back said, "Everyone attack", and it turned into a ballroom blitz!_ ” Bubby was loud, bouncing in his spot as he sang, handwriting going messy with the excitement of the song, and Coomer realized that Bubby had sung with before in here. Coomer light up as he simultaneously realized he knew the next lyrics, and pushed himself up further, balancing on his hands to join in.

“ _And the girl in the corner said, "Boy, I wanna warn ya", It'll turn into a ballroom blitz!_ ” He called out with Bubby, and Bubby paused his writing, still singing the next few lines, but turning to see Coomer there, grinning at him as he sang along. Bubby grinned back, as Coomer’s booming voice got past the Too Loud volume of the headphones. He turned back to go back to recording what he needed to, but set the notebook aside as he turned, crouching down in front of Coomer as they finished the song together.

He tugged out his headphones, turning it down as the first few notes of the next song in the playlist started, grinning at Coomer. “Didn’t realize you knew that one.”

“Oh, I only know cause you’ve sung that before! I knew the next bit of it so I sang along.” He shifted, back down to hanging on by his arms, and Bubby matched him by sitting, still smiling down at him. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all!” Bubby grinned, head balancing on his hands, elbows on his knees. “I like hearing you sing. It’s better than singing up here alone with just the music to pretend it’s another person here.” He shrugged, not quite wanting to admit he had been a bit lonely down here before Coomer showed himself. “You the only one here?”

Coomer sighed, nodding. “I always try and show up when you start singing. I heard more of it than I used to!” He grinned up at him, then shifted, catching one of Bubby’s arms to trace the lines that only he could see again. Bubby turned his head to only balance on his other arm, glad he had worn shorter sleeves than yesterday.

“I left the door open this time. Not exactly up to safety regulation, but since I know you guys are the scariest things out there, I can go out and do repairs no problem.” Coomer laughed, grinning at him like he had given them the biggest compliment.

They sat there for a moment, as Coomer trace the lines affectionately, and Bubby grabbed his IPod again, slipping one headphone in his ear to hum along to as Coomer did. It was quiet for a moment, before Coomer slipped downwards slightly, then sighed. “Sorry Bubby... looks like I have to go for a bit.”  
Bubby frowned, a bit disappointed, but Coomer sunk a bit more, obviously being pulled by someone. “You’ll come back?”

“I’ll do my best to show up again! I’ve never missed hearing you sing, and I don’t want to start now!” Coomer grinned at him, before sinking down into the water. Just barely, Bubby could make out another one of the mer, though which one he couldn’t fully be sure. All he could be sure of was that it wasn’t Tommy, as wide as the manta ray was.

He watched, as the barely visible figures disappeared, then sighed softly, standing carefully and moving back to his room. He’d come back out when it was time for him to check everything for bed, and for Coomer to listen to him sing again.

Or, that was the plan, before a frantic beeping sent him scurrying back the computers to check what was wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just the boys being soft for this one!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh might have another chapter later tonight. Who knows bois.

It was a small amount of damage. Just barely anything, but at this depth, the longer he left it, the worse it would get until he had to go back up to get someone to redo the entire place, and Bubby had neither the time, nor patience, to have to go back up yet. He just found the mer, he was not going back up any time soon. 

So, despite his misgivings, and the fact that he could just barely swim in the first place, he donned the underwater suit, snapping the helmet into place and finding the welder, which he flicked on just for a second, grinning. One of the few flames hot enough to burn underwater. He loved this thing. 

Rarely got the chance to use it though, which was more than fine by him. 

He stared down into the abyss for a moment, clutching the welder tightly in his hand, before stepping down into the water, sinking slightly. He couldn’t swim well on a good day, and with the suit weighing him down, it was a struggle to get to the base close enough to cling onto it like he did when he needed to get somewhere. It was a slow going process, slowly moving down the edge of the base to get to where he could only assume some large fish had rammed into the side of the building on accident. 

Bubby thought about Forzen for a moment. Maybe it was him, but, glancing around, he didn’t see anyone in the dark, so he didn’t think about it. Forzen barely moved without a current, it was unlikely he’d still be around without someone else also there to drag him back after getting caught. 

It really was just a small scratch, but it was enough to set off the sensors, which meant it was enough to need repair, so he set about it. 

The light was bound to attract something, so he worked quickly, easy enough when it wasn’t that big of a deal. Once finished, he turned, only to catch sight of something in the dark. 

It was Gordon. Staring him down, just barely in view. Bubby had seen how long Gordon was, but at the moment, Gordon just seemed to melt into the void, just barely caught in the light of his headlamp, staring at him. He had a flat expression, almost looking angry at him, and Bubby panicked, flinging himself back towards the bay. 

He managed to get into the bay quickly, but didn’t bother tugging off the suit, just pushed past into the hallway, dripping water across the floors, and sunk there, just out of sight of the door way. 

Faintly, he heard the water swish as Gordon surfaced in the pool, and then sunk back down without a word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gordon deserves to be a lil spooky I think...


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bubby spooked slightly, but he's a lil spooked by everything. Coomer can fix that though.

Coomer hummed, arms full of isopodes and various small fish. Tommy and Darnold were on either side of him, both also carrying their own amount of food for the others. He wondered, idly, if he would miss Bubby’s singing, but didn’t think they had taken that long. 

“You really are enraptured by him huh?” Tommy teased, and Coomer looked over at him, half glaring. 

“Hey now, be nice Tommy. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Coomer like this.” Darnold piped up, pulling in front of the other two for a moment, grinning. “He’s pining~” 

“I don’t know why I agreed to come with you two when I knew this would be the outcome.” Coomer muttered. “I should have just let you fend for yourself. You can do that, I don’t have to help you.” 

“No, Coomer, come on!” Tommy pouted slightly, and Coomer managed to duck under him, as he tried to swim in front of him. Tommy being mostly flat had a few advantages, as it took him a moment to turn back around, and by that time, Coomer was far enough ahead that Tommy had to spend the time catching up, rather than trying again. “Coomer, don’t be like this!” 

Coomer just grinned, as Darnold settled besides him, grinning. “Come on, Coomer, we all know it’s true...” 

“Of course it’s true, Darnold, I’m not denying it. I’m just denying your right to tease me for it.” Tommy caught up with them, pouting slightly. 

“You teased us all the time for our things. You still tease Gordon and Benrey!” 

“I have the right for that.” 

Darnold frowned at him. “Why do you get it and we don’t?” 

“Because I’m old, Darnold.” And with that, he sped up, racing them off back towards home. Darnold shouted, following behind quickly, leaving Tommy pouting as he once again had to catch up with them. 

He only slowed when he saw Gordon, holding something in his hand and looking down at it confused. Joshua circled his tail slowly, enraptured with the bioluminescence. 

“What’s that?” Coomer asked, and Gordon looked up, shrugging. 

“No clue. Bubby dropped it. Haven’t been able to give it back to him cause when I peeked into the pool area, he wasn’t there even though he had just gotten back in.” Coomer frowned, before shifting slightly to hold out his hand for it. 

“I’ll take it back to him, you three go find Forzen and Benrey, and I’ll see what happened.” Gordon handed over the device, Coomer passing along the food, and he took off back towards the human pod, poking his head out of the water, and glancing around. 

Bubby wasn’t there. 

Coomer shifted, setting the device on the side of the pool and pulling himself up onto his hands. “Bubby? Are you there?” 

There was a few moments of silence, before Bubby peeked through the open door. He glanced behind Coomer, before seeming to relax, moving into the room. “Hey...” 

“Hey! You dropped this apparently, Gordon didn’t tell me much.” Bubby looked down at the device, then took it carefully from Coomer’s hand. 

“Thanks for bringing it back I was... not looking forwards to going out and looking for it.” He set it aside. “It’s a welder. Supposed to seal small scratches in metal back together so this whole place doesn’t collapse in on itself and kill me.” 

Coomer stared at him a moment, and Bubby grinned back. 

“Again. Thanks for bringing it back.” He sat down in front of Coomer, who settled back down into his normal hanging off the edge position. 

“Why’d you drop it? If it’s that important, you really should be careful with it.” Bubby sighed. 

“Gordon freaked me out. I was just sitting there and I glance back and he’s just barely in my range of sight glaring at me, so I panicked a bit and got out of there.” 

“Glaring?” Coomer frowned, balancing his chin on his arms. “That doesn’t sound much like Gordon.” 

“Well, he was.” Bubby crossed his arms over his chest, staring off to the side. Coomer shifted, leaning just a bit closer to him. “Again... freaked me out a bit. He does know his eyes look like the fucking void, right? Not exactly a comforting sight 2000 meters under the water with no way to escape if he decides to attack me.” 

Coomer sunk down a bit, frowning. He knew that Gordon was careful, but this really didn’t sound like him. “I’ll talk to him. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explination for this.” 

Just as he said that, Benrey popped up next to him. “Bro foooood.” Coomer pulled back, raising an eyebrow at Benrey, who just grinned. “Bro. Where’s the food. I’m hungry...” 

“Gordon has it.” He paused, before poking Benrey’s chest. “You stay here. I’ll go see where he is.” Coomer ducked under the water, leaving Benrey behind with Bubby, not noticing the way that Bubby scooted away from the water as he did. “Gordon! I’m Hungry!” HE called out, and heard the distant groan of annoyance, and grinned. Forzen floated into view, and Coomer swam over, hooking under his arms and dragging him along.   
“Yo, thanks...” he murmured, but stayed just barely under the water. Gordon came into view, and Coomer stopped him from joining the others as Tommy and Darnold did, letting the hunt float out around them to grab at. 

“Gordon, when Bubby dropped that welder... what was going on?” 

“Oh.” Gordon paused a moment. “Well... he came out in this suit thing, and went over to the side of his habitat and started doing something, but all I know is that it was really bright right there, even without the head lamp, and I figured, hey, I’m down here, I’ll just keep watch and make sure that nothing happens to him, just in case. I mean, I figured nothing would, but extra protection never hurt anyone, right?” 

Coomer paused, before smiling slightly. “Gordon, I think you scared him. You do tend to look a bit angry if you’re just sitting and watching something. I’m pretty sure he thought you were the thing that was going to hurt him.” 

Gordon actually looked a bit upset by this, enough that he didn’t notice Joshua stealing from the small pile of food still in his arms. “I would never!”   
“We all know that, Gordon, but he doesn’t! He’s down here alone and out of his element. Try not to scare him too much?” Gordon nodded, and they swam back up. As they surfaced, Bubby was reentering the room, mumbling something about spoiling them, arms full of soda. He turned, spotting them again, and smiled nervously. 

“Hey...” He walked carefully around the pool, depositing soda in various places close to them, though did set down Gordon’s and speed off a bit quicker than normal. Gordon frowned at this, but said nothing. Coomer swam back over to his spot, gather a few isopodes to munch on while over there. Underneath the soda, it was revealed that Bubby had something in a plastic bag, which he sat down with. 

“What’s that?” Coomer asked, and Bubby lifted the bag. 

“Sandwich. This is my lunch.” Coomer frowned at it. 

“I didn’t think humans ate plastic.” 

Bubby snorted, shaking his head, and opened the bag, pulling out the sandwich. “We don’t. Just use it to keep the food from getting gross.” Bubby glanced behind him, and his eyes suddenly went wide. 

Coomer frowned, glancing back and realized what he must’ve seen, as Darnold’s jaw fitted itself back into place just slightly underwater.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder that Darnold is a goblin shark in this. Those bastards can shoot their jaws out of place for food. Darnold can also do this. Another friendly reminder that Gordon is a gulper eel. This will come into play next chapter :)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, this entire chapter is just gay people real.

“What... What the fuck... are you a goblin shark? That was...” Bubby blinked, staring down into the water as if staring into the void. Darnold watched innocently, head tilted. 

“My... jaw thing? Yeah, I just... do that if things start floating away from me.” 

Bubby did not blink, did not move, but made a soft pained noise. “That... All I can ask is you don’t do that when I can see you, that was...” He set aside his sandwich. 

Gordon hummed softly. “Oh. Yeah, no, I don’t think that Darnold’s thing is that bad.” Bubby’s eyes flicked to Gordon, hook line and sinker. Gordon’s jaw unhinged, the two parts of his bottom jaw unhooking from one another, causing his jaw to open further, the signature giant maw of a gulper eel finally being revealed, the slits on the sides of Gordon’s mouth having hidden the muscle that kept his mouth together, stretching out properly to grow easily two feet in length. He shut his mouth again, jaw pieces clicking back together, and grinned at Bubby, who stared, for just a moment, before turning on his side, slowly laying down and staring up at the ceiling. 

“Never. Never again. If I do not look at you, I don’t have to see that. I’m going to have nightmares now.” Gordon snickered softly, and Coomer shifted, pulling himself up onto his hands to lean over Bubby, tilting his head. 

“Are... you alright, Bubby?” 

Bubby did not answer, but his eyes flicked to Coomer’s, blinking only once. For a moment, they stared at each other, before Bubby finally spoke again. “I feel like I’ve been cursed. I know it’s normal for you guys, and not at all freaky or horrifying, but I have been cursed with seeing that. I wish I hadn’t fallen for it. It will haunt me for the rest of my life.” and he turned his face away from Coomer’s staring up at the ceiling again. 

Coomer couldn’t help but laugh, settling back on his arms, carefully taking one of Bubby’s hands. He didn’t pull away, and Coomer noticed him smile slightly. “You’ll get used to it eventually. They just tend to do that sometimes.” 

“I don’t know how your mouths physically do that.” 

Darnold hummed, shrugging. “Who knows. It’s just something that we can do.” 

Bubby said nothing, continuing to sit there for a moment, just laying and holding Coomer’s hand. He eventually grabbed his sandwich again, but didn’t let go of Coomer’s hand. 

They sat there for awhile, Bubby laying on the floor, Coomer hanging off the side, holding hands, as the others argued about something, and just listened. The group started to disperse, but Coomer didn’t move, still hanging on. Benrey moved over to him, then flicked his tail up, sending a small wave of water up onto Coomer’s back. It didn’t touch Bubby, and Bubby snickered softly as Benrey disappeared under the water. 

“See you later Bubby!” Tommy called, and Bubby lifted his free hand in a wave, one that Tommy and Darnold returned, as Darnold dragged Forzen, who had been floating in the middle of the pool the entire time completely unbothered by everything around him, down with them. Gordon stayed a moment longer, before he ducked down under the waves. 

They sat in silence, Bubby slowly dragging his thumb in a circle across the back of Coomer’s hand, before Coomer shifted, looking up at him. “... Can you sing for me again?” he asked quietly, and Bubby smiled. 

“Yeah... hold on.” Not wanting to get up yet, he patted around for his IPod, and luckily found it, scrolling through a few songs before settling on one, popping one headphone into his ear to sing along with it. 

“ _It's nine o'clock on a Saturday... The regular crowd shuffles in_.” He sang softly, and Coomer smiled, pulling himself up a bit closer, holding tighter onto Bubby’s hand. Bubby smiled as he sang, still dragging his thumb in a circle across the back of his hand. He closed his eyes, settling his head on his free arm. “ _There's an old man sitting next to me... Making love to his tonic and gin_.”

As the song continued, Bubby felt himself falling asleep. He kept up singing for Coomer, but was slowly drifting. His back was going to regret that in the morning, but he didn’t exactly care. He had Coomer holding onto him, humming along, clinging to his hand as if it were anchoring him to the world. 

" _Sing us a song, you’re the piano ma_ n.” Bubby yawned, shifting slightly to be a bit more comfortable on the metal floor. “ _Sing us a song tonight_...” Why he felt so tired now, even as his back already began to complain, he didn’t know. He was laying on a metal floor, no cushioning on his head save for his own arm, but Coomer drifted next to him, his humming drifting off into silence as Bubby sang him to sleep. “ _Well we’re all in the mood for a melody... and you’ve got us feeling alright._..” 

Coomer already asleep, Bubby mumbled the last few lines, opening his eyes for just a moment to look at Coomer’s peaceful sleeping face, and smiled, closing them again to drift off, Coomer’s hand clutched in his own. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this piano man scene in my head the entire time i've been writing this. There's another hella gay scene with songs at some point, but like... why is this scene so soft, and why did only piano man fit into this scene.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just... I didn't mean for this to happen. Oh god it's just... oh my god-

The first thing Bubby noticed when he woke up was the pain radiation from his back and arm. The next? His hand was still clutched in Coomer’s, his head pressed against his side. It made the pins and needles in his arm, the ache in his lower back, worth it. 

Bubby shifted, opening his eyes slowly, smiling to himself. He didn’t move, not yet, but carefully pulled his arm from underneath his head, slowly moving his fingers to get the blood flow back into it. He lay his hand down over his stomach, looking down towards Coomer. 

He was still asleep, smiling softly, head laying on his arms, hand clinging to Bubby’s. For a moment, Bubby worried, seeing as he had no clue how long they had been asleep, and Coomer was an undersea creature. Just as he began to worry, however, the water behind Coomer rippled, as a dark blue tail rippled up in the water, creating a wave big enough to splash up against Coomer’s back, getting his hair wet, but not big enough to hit Bubby, leaving him mostly dry, as Coomer began to drip on him. Benrey poked his head out of the water to check, and caught Bubby’s eye. 

“Uh... hey dude.” 

“Hey.” 

They stared at each other a moment before, before Benrey grinned. “Lil gay boy fall asleep here?” Bubby, instead of the reaction that Benrey had expected, which was getting annoyed, just grinned, turning his head up towards the ceiling again. 

“He fell asleep on me. What was I supposed to do, move?” He grinned, and Benrey blinked, slowly moving over to him and pushing himself up near his head. Bubby glanced over, seeing the sharp claws that Benrey had put just a bit too close to his face for him to be comfortable, but didn’t say anything about it. “I... sang him to sleep, I guess.” 

“Hah... gay.” 

“Shut up.” Bubby muttered, turning his head back up to the ceiling, closing his eyes. Benrey didn’t leave, though, hanging off the bay like Coomer was, and was, from the sound of it, still flicking water at Coomer with his tail. “Do you need me to wake him up?” 

“Nah. Haven’t seen him sleep this well in awhile. Might as well let him sleep. I can keep him moist enough that it’s not a problem. Don’t wanna break up this gay cuddle pile.” Benrey grinned at him, and Bubby huffed, but smiled to himself. He really didn’t want to move yet, even with his back basically screaming at him for it. 

Coomer still slept on quietly, soft little snores coming from his every once in awhile. 

Benrey left after a few more minutes, apparently having sufficiently done his job, and just disappeared back into the dark water with a wave. Bubby waved back with his free hand, but didn’t know if Benrey had seen it. Still. Didn’t matter. Coomer still slept, and Bubby shifted slightly, checking his IPod and grinned to find it still had some charge. He turned it back on, humming along to the music for a moment. 

“ _If you said goodbye to me tonight... there would still be music left to write_.” He sang quietly, not wanting to wake up Coomer. Bubby looked back down to him, then managed to shift just enough to get a hand in his hair without disturbing where Coomer clutched onto his other hand. “ _What else could I do... I’m so inspired by you... this hasn’t happened for the longest time_...” 

Coomer shifted just barely, as Bubby dragged his hand through his hair slowly, closing his eyes as he sang, carefully squeezing Coomer’s hand. Coomer began to wake up, unknown to Bubby, as he sang on. Coomer lifted his head just barely to look up at Bubby. 

“ _That’s where you found me... When you put your arms around me... I haven’t been there for the longest time_.” Bubby smiled, and Coomer light up upon seeing it, not moving yet, just staring up at Bubby, eyes wide, listening to him continue to sing along to the music, smiling softly. 

Bubby paused for a moment to shift, still humming along, trying to find a way to be a bit more comfortable without ruining his back further, though it wasn’t the most important thing to him anymore. “ _It’s how I need you... and how you needed me too... That hasn’t happened for the longest time_...” He opened his eyes again, catching Coomer staring at him, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. Bubby went pink as well, but didn’t look away from him, his hand still in Coomer’s hair for a moment. Coomer frowned, nuzzling into his hand slightly, and Bubby smiled softly at him. 

“ _I’ll take my chances... I forgot how nice romance is... I haven’t been there for the longest time_...” Coomer joined in the last line, the only one he was really sure of, and Bubby lit up, loving to hear him join in singing with him, being able to hear his voice, raspy with sleep as it was. They didn’t move as he continued along the song. 

“ _I don’t care what consequence it brings... I have been a fool for lesser things_.” Bubby squeezed his hand again, feeling Coomer squeeze back, smile growing again, having to turn his head away so he didn’t stutter through the song, blushing brighter. “ _I want you so bad... I think you ought to know that, I intend to hold you for the longest time_...” The song slowly trailed off, as did Bubby, staring towards the dark water as it went quiet. 

Coomer smiled at him slightly, before shifting, carefully taking the hand he had been holding as they slept, and pressed a gentle kiss to the knuckles, not yet letting go. Bubby looked back to him, and smiled softly, holding his hand just a bit tighter. 

Despite the embarrassment of this, singing in front of someone, and a song like that, Bubby admitted to himself. He would do this over and over again, if it meant he could see the look in Coomer’s eyes every single time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't where Bubby was supposed to sing this song, but FUCK here it is I guess. How do I get out of the gay singing pining momence? How do I get out? I had a plan-


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What was this, who knows

Coomer had to duck back into the water a few minutes later, off to find the others, just to check in at the very least, and Bubby had to sit up, pop his back, check on everything in the engine room, make sure that the place didn’t collapse in on him. His back popped when he stood, waving a hand at Coomer as he disappeared under the water. 

He found everything exactly as it was supposed to be, as went back towards the room he had set himself up, before the weird Black Mesa phone rang. Bubby growled at it, hating when they called, hating the entire organization. He let it ring for a moment longer, before picking it up. “What.” 

“What took you so long?” 

“I was doing something, you know, not dying down here by being crushed, you know?” 

“Don’t get sassy with me.” 

Bubby huffed, but went silent. 

“Anything weird to report?” 

“Nope. Nothing but dark water and the occasionally bastard fish trying to get my lights.” 

There was silence on the other end for a moment, and Bubby dragged the cord down the hall to peek into the docking bay, eyes going wide when he saw Gordon there. He waved a hand, but frowned when he saw Bubby raise a finger to his lips. Gordon narrowed his eyes, but the voice on the other end came back. 

“Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary?” 

“Oh, what, you expect me to find something? You think there’s a monster down here or something? Cthulhu hiding at the bottom of the ocean? You may have made me in a tube, but I’m not an idiot. Just normal bottom of the ocean type bullshit.” 

For a moment, there was silence, before the person on the other end sighed. “Fine. Keep us updated.” 

“Haven’t missed an update yet.” He walked back to the receiver, snapping it there for a moment. 

God, he hated talking to them, hated pretending he didn’t remember his life before they had shoved him in a tube and claimed they made him, hated the entire fucking organization. Bubby wished, for a moment, that he could have found a way out of their grasp, that he hadn’t gotten into it in the first place, but still. He was here now, and he had Coomer. 

Thinking that, he remembered Gordon in the dock, and sighed heavily, trudging back over, not looking forwards to this conversation at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Chapter Fourteen like... right after this, it's going, it's happening.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here it is! conversations! Bubby Gordon bonding moments!

Bubby slid into the room, staring down Gordon, who was leaning on the other side of the bay, watching him quietly. They stared each other down for a moment, before Bubby sighed. “Alright. Ask the question. I know you want to. Ask.” 

“A tube?” Gordon’s voice was so quiet, so careful, and calculated and Bubby sighed softly. 

“Yeah. It’s not... It’s not an actual thing. I was born, I had a family, but uh... they basically took me and shoved me in and tried to get rid of the memories of them all, but, as you can probably tell, it failed. I had to pretend that it didn’t, so that’s been a fun couple of decades.” He muttered bitterly, glaring off at the wall, and Gordon went silent, before swimming over to the side he was on, pulling himself up onto his elbows. 

“They stole you away from your school and pretended that they were it?” 

“Basically. I don’t... I don’t know what happened to them, I had a huge family at one point. Other than this, I haven’t been outside the facility. I think I was actually a failed cloning attempt, considering the ‘prototypes’ that were around.” Bubby moved over carefully, sitting in front of him, out of reach still, but still there. “They were... kind of terrifying actually. They ‘let me’ go back to work and I took this the moment that it came up.” 

Gordon stared at him quietly, frowning. “I didn’t actually lose my arm fighting a shark. I’m smarter than that, but I needed a quick excuse.” Bubby frowned, looking at him. 

“How did you lose it than?” He asked softly, and Gordon sighed softly. 

“I went up a bit too high. Got caught in something, they pulled me up too far. It wasn’t... enough pressure around me, the light was too bright since it was morning, and I was panicking. I lashed out, the... I don’t even know what they were, but they yanked me up out of the water, I attacked, of course, that’s what happens when you’re pulled out of your comfort zone, and they decided the way to stop me was to uh... cut off my arm. They were going to do the other too, I think, but I managed to get out of their net. Took one of them with me when I went down, held him by the hair as I dragged him down...” Bubby shuddered at the thought, but understood, watching as Gordon’s eyes glazed over, stuck back in that moment. 

“He drowned?” 

“I didn’t let go of him until he stopped moving. I was... I was bleeding a lot, and it wasn’t safe. I was lucky enough to find a shark tooth on the way back down to safety, though and uh... shoved it into my arm. Made it look like that’s how I got attacked. They laughed at me, but uh... at least I didn’t scare them, right? They know to be wary around humans, but I didn’t want to scare them with the truth of what your kind can do. I’m not gonna pretend I didn’t kill a human, Bubby, but they mutilated me for fun.” 

Bubby nodded slightly. “I’m not arguing with you. He deserved it, I’m sure the entire crew deserved it, but... why didn’t you tell them?” 

“They deserved to keep their stories of the good up there. Of the sky, the sun, the land, everything up there that’s so foreign to us, but so normal for you, they deserved to keep that without... without getting it tainted by knowing what humans are capable of.” Gordon looked down at his scarred stump. “I don’t trust you, but you aren’t them. You haven’t hurt us. I... I shouldn’t be as trusting about you as I am, but I have never seen Coomer this happy.” 

He let that sink in, the fact that Coomer was enough for Gordon to put aside the everything that had happened to him to keep him happy. “Gordon. You terrify me, even if it’s on accident, but... thank you. He... he’s important to me.” 

Gordon nodded, pushing back from the edge of the pool. “I uh... just came by to apologize to you for earlier. With the whole ‘being in the dark behind you’ thing. I uh... forget, sometimes, you can’t see like we can.” 

“You did the weird mouth thing on purpose, didn’t you?” It worked to break the tension, and Gordon snorted slightly, nodding. 

“Yeah, I did. It was funny though.” 

Thinking about it now, Bubby laughed softly, despite the fact that it was still kind of terrifying, seeing that gaping maw on a normal human like face. “Yeah... I’ll give you that one. Try not to just stare at me from the void next time I go out, huh?” 

“No promises.” Gordon laughed, then went to sink down, before pausing. “Oh, uh, I think this would go without saying but don’t tell the others about this?” 

Bubby nodded. “Yeah. I got it. No one needs to know.” 

Gordon nodded at him again, before disappearing into the water, but not without flicking water up at him, landing just short of him as Bubby managed to scramble back against the wall. 

For a moment, he sat there, staring at the dark water settle from the upset of Gordon’s tail, before he sighed, standing carefully, walking out back to his room again. Coomer would call for him when he showed up again, and he face planted into his bed, laying there in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bubby and Gordon care each other bro-


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh! So now we get a bit deeper into plot stuff and thing <3

Over the next week, they would show up in the docking bay at random times to come see him, though Harold was most often, and he would always, without fail, show up when he started singing. It was nice, as they would then end up sitting next to each other and just talking. Bubby didn’t mention anything before his time in Black Mesa, didn’t want to try and describe a family he had lost, and Harold just seemed to accept that, never telling him of any times before he was with the current school either. 

His name was the exception to that rule. Harold said that it hadn’t been used it a long time, but... wouldn’t mind it from Bubby. So he did, almost immediately, start calling him that. It was actually kind of cute, how easily he could get Harold to blush just by using his name. 

It almost felt like they had brought him into the school as well, just like that, and it was... comforting. Bubby, despite his best tries, couldn’t remember what the family before had looked like. He could remember somethings, a smell, perhaps, or a color that he associated with each person, but if you asked him to describe what his mother had looked like, he would have nothing. He didn’t consider anyone at Black Mesa a friend to him, let alone family so... 

He had been alone. For years, Bubby had been alone, and now, so easily they had slipped into his life, with almost no hesitation. 

Bubby didn’t want to go back up. Not now, not ever. He wanted to stay down here, see them, but he knew that eventually his time would end. It was the one thing that kept come back to bother him, and the one thing that Bubby didn’t think he could handle. 

He didn’t get upset about it often, of course, but it was often enough that Harold had noticed. Hanging off the deck as he did, though by the shrimp arms, so he could lay his head on Bubby’s lap and Bubby could play with his hair. Harold stared up at him quietly, as Bubby stared off at the wall, just... thinking. 

“What’s wrong?” Bubby snapped out of it, glancing down at him, before smiling slightly. 

“Just.... thinking. I don’t know how long exactly I’m staying down here. I know I’ve got a few months at least, but... how long exactly is a mystery.” Bubby frowned, and Harold shifted up slightly, looking up at him. “I don’t want to leave.” 

Harold stared at him quietly, before sitting up, holding himself up to keep eye level with Bubby. “What if... you could stay here with us.” 

“It’s a Black Meas facility, Harold, I can’t stay.” Bubby muttered bitterly, but Harold shifted, catching his face in his hands, forcing Bubby to look at him. 

“What if you could? What if... What if you could be like us and stay down here?” Bubby frowned at him, one hand coming up and settling on the back of Harold’s. 

“You can... do that?” 

Harold grinned, nodding excitedly. “It might take us a bit to get everything, but we can do it. That way you don’t have to leave!” He looked so excited, and Bubby couldn’t help but grin back at him. “I need to go talk to Darnold if this is actually a thing you want to do.” 

Bubby didn’t hesitate, just grinned at him. “Staying down here with you, or going back up to no one? Not exactly a hard decision there.” 

Harold flushed, and slid back into the water to pout at him as Bubby snickered, waving at him. Harold waved back and disappeared into the dark water. Bubby sighed, standing carefully, watching the water still, leaning against the wall. 

Just as it finally stilled, it rippled again, and Bubby frowned. Harold wouldn’t be back that quickly right? That wasn’t possible, finding Darnold and convincing him that quickly. 

No. Instead, a Black Mesa submarine surfaced in the water, brought up fully by the other side of the docking bay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bubby turning into a mer literally just to be able to smooch Harold more often and more effectively? Yeah....


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some shit going down! Wooooo :)

Bubby watched quietly as the sub surfaced, feeling the panic pool in his stomach. How much had they seen? Had they seen Harold? Where they going to ask trick questions, run him in circles until he admitted to seeing the school? What if they didn’t, just let him pretend he didn’t know why they gloated their knowledge over him and- 

Breathe. Calm. Don’t let them know they scared you. The biggest rule that Bubby had followed the entire time under Black Mesa’s thumb. They’ll get worse if they know what scares you. 

Two soldiers got out of the sub, looking around as if casual. Bubby stared at them, knowing exactly what they were doing. Nothing these people did was a casual endeavor, always playing some sort of mind game with him. He leaned back against the wall, raising an eyebrow at them. “Didn’t realize I’d be getting guests today. I might’ve cleaned up a bit.” 

Soldier one looked to him, a scowl set heavy on his face, and Bubby just stared back, letting himself smirk, giving off the air of someone unafraid. “Exactly why we didn’t tell you, Subject-13V.” 

Fuck. So they were the dehumanizing assholes. Subject-13V was the name they gave him after failing to wipe his memory. He never fully understood what that reasoning for that subject name, but it didn’t matter. “You think I’m hiding something? What in the fuck can someone hide when they’re alone on the bottom of the ocean?” 

“That’s what we’re here to find out, Subject-13V.” The second soldier says, and Bubby sighed. 

“Go ahead. I have nothing to hide.” He followed behind them like the obedient dog they seemed to think he was. Soldier 1, who he began to think of Scowl, seemed to be searching for something. Bubby watched as he tore apart the room he had set himself up in, pretending it didn’t bother him. He felt lucky, for a moment, that he had his IPod on him. They never searched him if they didn’t find anything incriminating around. 

He hadn’t written a single thing on the mer down anywhere. Nothing documented. Bubby was smarter than that, had begun to put together that Black Mesa knew about the mer down here, the only reason he could think of them stationing someone down here. 

Soldier Two, who Bubby had decided to dub Ugly, just because he found it funny, was watching him the entire time Scowl worked, and Bubby just kept himself calm, leaning back against the doorway. If he kept himself quiet, they would leave again. No one would stay down here long. 

Scowl only got angrier the less he found, and he stomped off towards the engine room. Bubby huffed a sigh, following behind him, Ugly behind Bubby. They passed the docking bay, and Bubby, out of the corner of his eye, saw Harold in the middle of the bay, Gordon on one side and Darnold on the other as they peeked in. Bubby had just managed to catch them ducking back down into the water when they passed.

He said nothing, but the pure panic that he felt seeing them in that moment rushed through him. 

Neither of the soldiers said anything. They settled in the engine room for a time, as he tore it apart as well, looking for something, anything. Bubby sat there watching him quietly, as Scowl only got angrier at finding nothing. 

For a second, he peeked into the trash compactor, shooting a look towards Bubby. “You drink a lot of soda.” He said, suspicious. Bubby raised an eyebrow. 

“I’m on the bottom of the ocean. I don’t exactly have a lot of things to do, so sometimes, I get up, and end up drinking a few. Is that a crime now?” He asked, head tilted innocently, and Scowl’s scowl only deepened, slamming the door to the compactor shut. 

They went back to the bay. Harold was nowhere to be seen, not that Bubby could see him in the dark water if he was just out of sight. He glanced down at the water once, then back up. 

Both soldiers began to search this time, leaving them backs to him. He glanced between them, before noticing Ugly seemed to have a gun stored on a holster on his side, just out of his own sight line. Bubby circled the bay a few times, keeping himself casual, and, as he passed by Ugly a third time, his hand snaked out and snatched it, as the holster hadn’t had the top shut. Ugly didn’t even notice, and Bubby slipped it into his own waistband, tugging his shirt up to cover it. 

The soldiers soon finished their fruitless search, and Bubby leaned against the wall as they got back into their sub. “See you next month, Subject-13V.” Bubby said nothing, didn’t lift his hand in a wave as they left, just watched until the water calmed after their departure, and then pulled his stolen treasure from his waist band, walking through to a small panel on the side of the base, one they hadn’t been able to disturb luckily. He popped it open, setting the gun inside, then snapped it back shut, his secret little treasure safe for now, and then, finally, let himself relax. 

It was terrifying, actually, being in the presence of people who didn’t think you human. He curled in on himself for a moment, breathing carefully, before turning back to the water, finding Harold peeking over the edge of the bay, exactly as he had expected. The others were probably down there too, hidden in the dark water, but all he cared for at the moment as Harold. 

“Are you alright?” Harold asked softly, and Bubby lifted a shaking hand, wiping a few tears away from his eyes, settling in front of Harold, taking one of his hands. 

“Better now that you’re here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bro these mer need to be more careful :/


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One Tumblr Friend: gives a sign they are awake   
> Me: ... chapter time babey

Harold managed to get Bubby a bit more calmed down, climbing up and out of the water, a bit awkwardly, and curled himself around Bubby. Bubby leaned against him quietly, holding onto his hand, watching the water ripple quietly at the others surfaced, though he noted that Benrey was not there. 

“What happened?” Gordon asked softly, and Bubby sighed, closing his eyes tightly. 

“Soldiers. Black Mesa, the company, really like having control over what they perceive they deserve control over.” He opened his eyes again, staring towards Gordon, who scowled darkly. Bubby felt Harold’s arms tighten a bit around him slightly. “They’re going to come down again. They’re going to keep coming until I go back up, and I don’t want to go back up.” 

“That’s exactly what we came to talk about.” Darnold grinned, the shark moving over closer, pulling himself up a bit, splashing water up as he did. Bubby barely reacted to the cold of it, just sunk deeper into Harold’s grip, though that didn’t work out well since he was cold as well. “There’s a potion, I can make it, but we need to gather the ingredients of it, and it’s irreversible. You have to be sure of this, Bubby.” 

“I have nothing up there for me except being basically tortured. I’d much prefer to come down here.” Bubby said flatly, and then wheezed softly, patting one of Harold’s arms to get him to loosen his grip, which he did. “I’m not going to regret it. I know that much. There’s one thing up there I would miss, and I’d much rather have you guys, and be out of Black Mesa’s grip than have the stars.” 

Darnold nodded slightly, looking towards Tommy, who moved over, accidentally pushing Forzen slightly off course from where he floated. “We can, uh, we can get everything together! It might take a couple days, but we can handle it!” Darnold nodded again, and Bubby relaxed against Coomer quietly, closing his eyes again. 

Benrey surfaced while his eyes were closed, shifting up next to Gordon, pressed up against him. Gordon shot a glance at him, but said nothing, focusing back on Bubby. 

“Hopefully they won’t come back down.” Bubby muttered, but didn’t fully believe it. If they didn’t have some sort of control over him, they would force it, keep travelling down until they found some reason to stay hovering over his shoulder, isolate him from this little family he had made. He would not let that happen if he could stop it. 

That was the problem, however. Could he stop it? Could he get them away long enough for them to go through with this and escape? Was that something he could actually do? He hoped so. Despite that, he thought back to previous escape attempts, as few and far between as they were, and knew the results had never been good. 

He looked towards the water, frowning at it. He would do this. He could do this. Bubby convinced himself of that, and let himself push the thoughts of the soldiers coming back down away. The water rippled slightly, and Bubby frowned at it, as Darnold and Tommy had moved on, talking to each other in a corner, a bit too fast for any one else to follow. The water rippled again and Bubby caught sight of a fish. 

How a fish got up here, he didn’t worry about. Instead, he just stared at it, with it’s dumb face, the completely empty eyes, as it seemed to bounce along the top of the water towards Gordon, and felt the overwhelming urge to pet that fish. 

“... I wanna pet a fish.” He muttered to himself, and Harold snorted in surprise behind him, muffling his laughter, sitting up to also see the fish. 

“Oh, that’s Joshua. He’s Gordon’s son. Gordon found him one time and just... kept him. We love Joshua.” 

“I want to pet him.” Bubby mumbled again, almost pouting. “I can’t get to him cause he can’t come up here.” 

Gordon snorted, then ducked under the water, barely audible cooing noises coming from under the water, and Bubby pressed closer to Harold, holding onto one of his hands. “I’m going to pet that fish one day.” 

“I believe that, Bubby.” He mumbled, tail curling up around him, and Bubby smiled, closing his eyes, letting himself, if only for a moment, believe that he would be free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyways. Joshua's dumb face has been seen and I love this stupid little fish-


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hhh, I was gonna write G-Man's Repentance but this came out instead.

It was barely a day later when he got the call. To be completely honest, Bubby had expected it a lot sooner than he got it. Pick pocketing was a skill he had, but people tended to notice when they lost a gun. He let it ring through, had them call again before he answered, humming Dr. Feelgood as he did. 

“Where is it?” The voice on the other end growled, and Bubby sighed, walking down the hall and stretching the cord to peek into the docking bay. Harold was floating in the middle of it, stretched out completely, smiling at Bubby when he noticed that the other was there. 

“Where is what? I’m not exactly psychic you know. Didn’t give me that trait.” He watched as Harold shifted slightly, going from lounging on his back to flipping over onto his stomach, watching him carefully. “You’ll have to be more specific.” 

“The gun you stole.” 

“You’re accusing me of stealing a gun? When in the world would I have been able to do that? Where would I hide it when they left? I’m pretty sure they would have noticed me leaving the room and hiding the damn thing.” Bubby wrapped on arm around his chest, best he could do with holding the phone to one ear. Harold watched, smiling softly at him, already knowing exactly what Bubby had done. 

“You are the only person who could have taken it, Subject-13V.” 

“Oh, popping off with the subject title. Well, buddy, you sure he didn’t just lose it in the ocean? You know, the deep dark sea where you can’t see your hand in front of your own face, let alone when you drop something to the sea floor?” Bubby snarked back, leaning against the wall. “You’re welcome to come back down and search the place again. Haven’t been able to clean up from last time you ransacked everything, but sure. Come on down.” 

“We will. You have forty-eight hours to tell the truth or we’re coming back down and bringing you back up.” 

Bubby’s heart stopped. That wasn’t enough time for them to finish everything. That was not enough time. Darnold had said a few days, right? 

“I am telling the truth. Come down and search me, seriously. I have nothing.” He snarked back, and only got dial tone. Bubby let out a shuttering breath, then set the phone no the floor, watching it skitter down the hall as the cord retracted, but stayed off the receiver. 

“What’s wrong?” Harold asked, and Bubby moved over to him, staying standing as he bounced one foot. 

“They’ve given me a deadline. Two days, and they’re coming back down for me. I’m sure I can hold them off for a bit, but... I don’t want to go back. They’ll overpower me eventually.” Bubby muttered, frowning down at the floor. Harold frowned at him, before climbing up out of the water. He didn’t do this often, since he wasn’t really used to standing like this, but Bubby was working himself up, and Harold didn’t want to sit helplessly in the water. 

He wrapped his arms around Bubby, both sets, and Bubby clung back to him, head in his shoulder. 

“I don’t think that’s enough time...” 

“We’re not gonna let you do this along, Bubby, you know that, right?” Harold asked softly, and Bubby nodded against his shoulder. 

“I know.” He paused again, before sighing, pulling his IPod from his pocket, slipping through a few songs before playing it through the speakers as he slid it back into his pocket. The music was muffled, but Harold could still hear it, as Bubby gently began to sway with him. Harold frowned, slightly confused, but went with it. 

_Put your head on my shoulder... Hold my in your arms, baby_

“This... terrifies me.” Bubby muttered, head on his shoulder as the song had described. “The idea that so soon after I got down here, got you guys, that it could just... be taken away again. I don’t want that.” 

_Squeeze me oh so tight... Show me that you love me too_

“We’re not going to let that happen, Bubby.” Harold said softly, shifting one hand to pull Bubby’s head up gently, catching his eyes and smiling at him. Bubby smiled back sadly, but still clung back to him. “I promise. 

_Put your lips next to mine, dear... Won't you kiss me once, baby_

“I know, you won’t let it happen, but... what if you can’t stop it?” Bubby asked, arms shaking. Harold frowned softly, slowing dragging his thumb across Bubby’s cheek. “If you can’t stop it? What happens then?” 

_Just a kiss goodnight, maybe... You and I will fall in love_

“We try our hardest. We aren’t going to let you go without a fight, Bubby.” Bubby nodded slowly, pressing his face into Harold’s hand, and they swayed there together for a moment, letting the song slowly play, before Bubby sighed lowly. 

“If... if you can’t. I’m... I can’t let this go past without you knowing.” Bubby shifted one hand, mirroring Harold, cupping his cheek, smiling sadly. “I don’t want that to happen.” 

Harold frowned, tilting his head into Bubby’s hand, and Bubby huffed a sigh, turning away slightly. 

_Put your head on my shoulder  
_

“Trust me?” 

_Whisper in my ear, baby_

“Always.” 

_Words I want to hear_

“Close your eyes?” 

_Tell me, tell me that you love me too._

Harold found it a strange request, but did as Bubby asked. Bubby sighed softly, before leaning forwards, gently kissing Harold. There was a moment of pause, before Harold trilled softly, a noise Bubby had never heard from him, and tugged him closer, returning the kiss gently, pulling back after a moment. Bubby smiled up at him, holding him tightly, ignoring the tears pricking at his eyes. 

He hoped, desperately, that that would not be the only time they kissed, but felt the pit of fear grow in his stomach despite his hope, knowing how easily it could all go wrong. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH GOD im so fucking gay. I'm so gay. That slow dancing scene has been in my head since this AU started.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a lil filler before we get into the juicy stuff!

They called him near hourly. Bubby sat back and refused to answer, sitting next to the bay and singing over the sound of the phone ringing nearly non stop. He slept on the floor next to the pool that night, curled up with Harold hanging off the side, singing back to him to drown out the sound. 

The next day, Bubby took the phone back off the receiver after one of the calls ended, and set it down on the table next to it, letting the damn thing sit in silence for once. He knew it was a bad idea, that it would only make them angrier, but he had wasted twenty four hours listening to the damn thing ring non-stop, and he was tired of it. 

Tommy and Darnold hadn’t been around since Bubby had confirmed that he did, in fact, want to become a mer. Harold, on the other hand, had basically not left his side. Bubby hadn’t left the docking bay either, bringing anything he would need for the last day into the bay, and pulling out the gun to keep on him at all times, just in case they came early. 

Gordon would stop by on occasion, still looking wary around Bubby, but said nothing on it, did anything he could to keep Bubby’s anxiety levels down, keeping him updated on if anything was coming. Benrey was another who did this, hanging off the side with Harold a lot and just talking, anything to distract him. 

They got on the topic of stars a few times. Harold seemed to notice that Bubby distracted himself best just going off about the stars, every constellation that he could remember, drawing them out on any paper he could find, showing each one off, explaining the myths behind them. 

The three of them asked questions, kept him distracted, but the feeling of fear grew every moment, consuming him. He stopped eating for the last day, too sick to be able to keep anything down anyways. He took to pacing as well, watching the hours tick by on the clock, knowing that they would get there before Darnold and Tommy would get back. 

“It’ll be okay, Bubby. You know we won’t let you go.” Harold pulled himself up onto his hands, and Bubby nodded, settling down on the floor next to him, quickly tapping a rhythm on the floor, trying to calm himself down. Harold sighed, shifting and pushing his shoulder lightly, leading him to lay down. “I’ll keep track of the time, alright?” 

Bubby nodded, wrapping his arms around Harold’s arm, and Harold sighed, hanging off the edge to let it happen. He didn’t think he could sleep, but he was tired. He’d need to be alert for when they came by, and Harold would wake him the moment they showed up, before he would duck back into the water and the rest of their plan would go into motion. 

So all he had to do was sleep. He just had to sleep. It was harder than it seemed, trying to calm his beating heart enough to finally fall asleep, when he felt Harold’s hand go through his hair, and relaxed just slightly. 

And then... 

“It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday... the regular crows shuffles in.” Harold began to sing for him. Bubby opened his eyes to look up at him, and caught him smiling, and Bubby smiled back softly, shifting slightly to hug his arm tighter to his chest, clinging to him. “There's an old man sitting next to me... Making love to his tonic and gin.” 

And somehow, it worked. Bubby felt himself getting tired, as Harold continued to sing for him, the same song he had sung Harold to sleep with, and Bubby smiled, finally feeling his heart beat calm down, and finally, finally, drifted to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyways, Coomer memorizes the song for Bubby, and they sing it to get each other to calm down and fall asleep <3


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Juicy shit time!

When Gordon came up, eyes set, determined, they knew. Bubby didn’t want them to go, didn’t want to be alone, but knew it had to happen. He sighed, getting one last kiss from Harold, before they both slid into the dark water, and Bubby stood, pulling the gun from his waistband, staring towards the water, waiting for the rippling to start. 

The sub came up with little fanfare. Bubby was unsurprised, but was surprised when five, instead of two, people got out. Was he really that dangerous with a gun? Maybe. He didn’t think so. He was good at pick pocketing, his aim probably wasn’t that good. He had never fired a gun before. 

Scowl and Ugly were back, and the three others, Bubby didn’t have much time to think of nicknames for. Ugly was especially pissed, since it was his gun that Bubby had stolen. They didn’t approach him, even if he was a bit backed into a corner. Two guys went back to stand at the door, meaning the only way he could potentially escape was into the water, and, even with his friends there, the pressure and the fact that he couldn’t breathe meant that was a no go. 

“Come on Subject-13V. You could’ve just told us the truth and you could’ve stayed down here longer.” Scowl was trying to placating, as if talking down a wild animal. He and Ugly were in front of the third guy, and none of them had a gun out at him. It was kind of insulting, actually, since he had his trained on the third guy’s head. 

“My name is Bubby, you know.” He said, instead of the myriad of insulting and anger he wanted to fling instead. “You don’t get to steal that name from me just because I did one thing you considered to be wrong.” He was careful with his wording. Bubby knew he wasn’t wrong, but god, years of gas lighting meant he had to say it carefully or he’d start to believe that he had done something wrong. 

He used to believe that whenever they threw him back in the tube, used to beg for their forgiveness. He gave up on that a few years in when he realized they only used him for their own sick fun. 

“Subject. You don’t have a name.” Ugly growled, and Bubby laughed. 

“Considering I just told you it, I think you’re the one in the wrong.” Another growl, and Bubby just bared his teeth in a mockery of a grin, the sharp teeth he remembered being given on display. They had fucked up with that one, sure, but they had thought him too unstable to try again. 

Ugly seemed actually a bit scared, and Bubby properly cocked the gun, keeping the same grin on his face as he did. 

“Oh come on.” Scowl was talking as if to a child now. “You don’t know how to use that damn thing. Just put it down and come back before you hurt someone.” 

“I intend to hurt someone. That’s my entire goal here. I think you should know that considering I have the gun up?” Bubby stared at him for a moment, watching the water shift in the pool behind him. “Are you that stupid?” 

“You don’t have the guts to do it.” 

Oh. Oh he didn’t did he? 

He squeezed the trigger, and the guy behind Scowl and Ugly went down in an ugly spray of blood and brain matter, the bullet catching right through his eye. Bubby grinned, cocked it again. “Don’t I?” He asked, tone saccharine. 

They finally took him seriously, guns coming out and trained on him. He just grinned at them again, training the gun onto Scowl. The shot through the eye on the other guy was a stroke of luck. The fact that he managed it was terrifying, and Bubby wasn’t entirely sure he could pull something like that off again. 

That’s when back up showed up, pulling himself free from the water and catching one of the soldiers at the door’s ankles. He screamed, going down, and the second tried to grab his hands, as Ugly and Scowl flipped back to look, and Bubby took the chance to take another shot, catching Scowl through his cheek, coming out the other side. He fell, as Gordon dragged the two others down to their doom in the water, and Bubby felt like he could do this, like it would work and-

He had waited a moment too long to switch his gun back to Ugly, and got a butt of his rifle to the face for his troubles. Bubby stumbled back, dropping his gun in the process, and Ugly managed to catch his hands, grinning at him. “You are going to be so much fun when we get you back up there.” He taunted, dragging Bubby by the wrists as he fought against it, trying his hardest to get free. 

The moment the handcuffs came out, Bubby’s heart sank, and he was in the sub, as Ugly dragged Scowl’s bleeding form up into it was well. He just grinned at Bubby, shutting the sub and dropping it down into the water. 

Headlights flicked on, Bubby caught sight of Harold, looking rather feral, blood and viscera surrounding him, of what Bubby could only assume had once been a guard. A Mantis’s Shrimp’s punch was deadly, and Harold hadn’t stopped at one. Just barely caught in the other was Gordon, claws sunk deep in the second guard, as well as his teeth. 

Bubby only got to be scared at the idea of Gordon eating someone before he they were noticed, Benrey coming up out of seemingly nowhere, attaching himself to the front of the sub to try and get through the window. Ugly, the only driver at the moment, spun a strange circle to try and get him off, and then went up, straight up towards the surface, and Benrey clawed down the side as he slipped from it. 

He felt his heart sink as he sat on the floor of the sub, next to a bleeding soldier he had shot, hands cuffed together. They... had failed. He was going back to up Black Mesa, getting locked back in, and he would never see any of them again. Hopelessness spread through him, and Bubby hung his head, watching as Scowl’s blood soaked through his pants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to say: Gordon did not eat a man. He just has sharp teeth and likes to use them.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh just a lil filler chapter i guess! just some Coomer POV before we get back into the juicy shit

Harold was scared of very few things in life. He would admit freely he was not a fearless fish, but when you could punch something so fast that it couldn’t see you? You tended to be pretty fearless. That being said, watching the sub disappear into the dark, Harold felt nothing but fear, knowing Bubby had been locked away in there. 

Gordon turned his head, ripping an arm free from the guard he had dragged down. Benrey swam after it, attaching himself to the front of it, clawing down the side, but couldn’t get a good grip on it. Gordon growled, spitting the arm out of his mouth before following after quickly. 

Harold went to follow, but stopped after a moment, watching as Gordon disappearing in pursuit of the sub. He couldn’t go up there anymore, not like Gordon could. It was healthy for any of them, but Gordon was the only one who had been able to go up and come back down on his own. 

Benrey pushed up against Harold’s side, wrapping one arm around him. “Gordon can do this.” 

“You can’t promise that.” Harold mumbled, and Benrey fell silent. They were both right in a sense. Gordon could do this, had destroyed subs in the past, but he couldn’t just destroy this one. Would they be able to get Bubby back, truly? 

It scared him. They were so close, so close to getting Bubby into the water with them, and now it could so easily be stolen from him. Maybe Gordon and Bubby could do it. Maybe they could get Bubby back down, maybe it would work, maybe it would all be okay. 

There were a lot more maybe’s that Harold was comfortable with in this scenario, and there was nothing that he could to help them, nothing he could do except stare up at where Gordon had disappeared into, and hope.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soon this is gonna end! How soon... maybe another chapter or two? maybe three. Max three.

The sonar was beeping. Bubby hated that noise so much, but the fact that it was beeping meant one thing to him, and one thing only. 

Someone was following the sub. 

Who, Bubby didn’t know, but right now, it didn’t matter. Whoever it was couldn’t destroy the sub without hurting him too, and Bubby knew that they knew that too. He looked up, watching the distance meter rise as they got closer and closer to the surface. He was willing to be they expected him to come quietly, and thus weren’t waiting near where they would rise up, and instead expected them to drive back to shore. 

He knew his captors well, after all. They were lazy to a fault, but cruel in their laziness. The longer time he had with these soldiers, the more broken they would get him back, and that, Bubby was sure, was what they were counting on. 

Jokes on them. There was only one left, and he was driving the sub. 

Bubby took his time. Small movements across the floor, so that Ugly didn’t notice him moving. He left trails in Scowl’s blood as he scooted his way through the water, but at the moment, Bubby didn’t care. How Scowl was still breathing was beyond him at this point, and he ended up almost kicking the guy in the face in the process of scooting his way behind the driver side of the sub. 

Okay so maybe he did it on purpose. Sue him.

Why Black Mesa designed these damn subs like this, Bubby wasn’t entirely sure. It left the driver completely vulnerable to an attack from behind, if no one was watching, and Black Mesa should have known that Bubby was not nearly as docile as they made him out to be. 

He timed it carefully, watching as the distance between him and surface got smaller, and the soldier in the seat kept breathing, so carefully. Finally, as Ugly exhaled, Bubby flung himself over the seat and hooked his handcuff chain around his neck, pulling him back against the seat. 

He struggled, of course, but Bubby was strong enough, and Ugly didn’t have air in his lungs. The sub stalled in the water, and Gordon came into view, peeking through the glass, and grinned, blood still staining his teeth, though it slowly dissipated into the water around him. 

It took longer than Bubby had thought it would, to his surprise. He did time it so that he had exhaled to shorten the time after all. He stayed there for another few moments after he stopped struggling, before unhooking his arms and shoving the guy to the side, pushing him off the chair and settling there himself. Ugly crashed to the floor, head bouncing off the metal with a rather satisfying noise.

He had one thing he wanted to do before going back down, however. 

Bubby began to ascend again, getting the strange look from Gordon, and just smiled at him. “Can you hear me through the glass?” He asked, but Gordon’s confused look only stayed, so he assumed not. 

The sky came into view when he breached the surface, staring up into the star lit sky, thousands of them, far from any sort of light pollution, or air pollution, that could block them from his view. Bubby smiled softly, Gordon bobbing along the surface in his side view. Bubby glanced down, then frowned at the small speaker on the dashboard. 

Just as he lifted it, Gordon tapped on the glass of the sub. “What are you doing?” Bubby could hear Gordon, just barely, and Bubby brought the radio to his mouth. 

“Look up. I wanted to see them one more time.” Gordon blinked, then looked up, eyes going wide at the vast universe set out before him. He had listened to Bubby’s stories, but hadn’t fully believed them, not until looking upwards. “Space was the first thing I got back from Black Mesa... The only thing, really, but...” He smiled softly, not catching the way Gordon seemed to go soft as well. “Again. I’d miss you guys more.” He set the speaker down on the dash again, and Gordon smiled, trailing a hand along the glass. 

“Just a few minutes. I’m not sure how long I can stay up here, and I need to guide you back so they trust the sub.” Bubby nodded, and continued to look up, soaking in the last bit of starlight he ever expected to see again. He made peace with that, knowing that down in the dark was Harold, and the school they had made. Down there, he would be safe from Black Mesa. They wouldn’t be able to find him. 

After another minute, Bubby shifted, dropping the sub back fully underwater, and then began to shakily follow Gordon back down to the dark, where he knew the others would be waiting for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hee Hoo, Gordon sees how completely soft Bubby gets for the stars, realizes he's giving up something he loves dearly, and that's the moment Gordon goes 'he's part of the school one hundred percent.'


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOO like another chapter? One or two more. Going with two to be safe but. Yea.

The sub was not steady in any sort of manner, Bubby not actually knowing what he was doing, for one, and for two, having his hands cuffed together. It made things a bit difficult, and Gordon was patient enough with him, as they gunned it back down towards the base. Bubby kept glancing back at the two soldiers. Ugly was still breathing, but Scowl was not, and Bubby hoped they would both stop soon enough. 

Still, Bubby stared down at the end of Gordon’s tail, as the subs slowly began to give warnings, running out of fuel, and just barely he could see the light from the base as the sub began to peter out. Fuck. He shifted, the sub slowing, and he managed to grab the speaker again, unsure how much of this could come through underwater. “I’m stuck.” 

Gordon disappeared in front of him, before turning again, coming back and frowning at him. “Stuck?” 

The warning for oxygen came up and he frowned at it. “Running out of air in here. Can’t move to the base.” Gordon sighed softly, and disappeared under the sub, and slowly, it began to move again. Bubby sat inside uselessly, frowning, before lighting up once he saw Harold in the mirror. There was a pause, before the sub sped up a bit, and finally, they got him up to the sub, pulled up into the bay. He struggled to get out with his handcuffed hands, but managed to get back into the bay, pushing past the body of the guard he had shot. 

Harold pulled himself up onto the bay, balancing on the shrimp arms, and Bubby grinned, hooking his hands around Harold’s head and pulling him in quickly. 

Gordon let it go on for a moment before very loudly and pointedly clearing his throat. Bubby unhooked his hands, grinning over at him. “I shot a guy! There’s also another dude alive in there.” Gordon looked at the sub for a second, before ducking under the water and breaching to grab onto it, claws sinking into the hull and dragging it down into the dark with him. 

“He always like that?” Bubby asked, still caught in Harold’s arms, and Harold just grinned. 

“He’s a bit protective of the school.” 

Gordon resurfaced, moving over towards them. “Gimme your hands.” Bubby frowned, but bared the chain between the handcuffs, and resisted the urge to jump when Gordon leaned forwards and bit through it. “There. Tommy and Darnold are back.” 

Harold reluctantly pulled away as Bubby stood, and Bubby paused a moment, before grinning. Darnold pulled up out of the water, staring up at him. “How long until it’s finished?” 

“I just need to get it into the conch and you can drink it.” 

“Good. Do that. I’ll be right back.” He walked out of the room, going over to the phone, finally putting it back on the receiver. 

Moments later there was a call, and Bubby grinned, answering it. “Hey motherfuckers. Thought you won?” 

“How-” 

“Now, now, don’t interrupt me, I have something important to tell you: I knew. I knew the entire fucking time. You didn’t make me. I’ve been human this entire time. You have no power over me anymore. Send an entire fucking platoon down to this base, and you’ll find nothing. Have fun.” Bubby didn’t let them get another word out, and he slid back into the docking bay, handcuffs clinking against the metal of the walls. “What do I gotta do?” 

Darnold paused, before lifting the conch shell up to him. “Drink the entire thing, and then come into the water. You might pass out, but when you wake up, you’ll be a mer.” 

“Know what kind?” He asked, sitting on the edge of the water, bringing the conch up to his mouth and downing everything inside. 

“No clue.” Darnold grinned, and Bubby huffed a laugh, setting the conch aside, hesitating only a second before pushing himself off the edge and sinking into the dark water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hell yeah bois. Debating if I wanna write the transformation from Coomer's POV, or just wanna skip to Bubby waking up.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh... not proud of this actually, but y'all wanted from Coomer POV and you're getting (kinda) from Coomer POV!

Jumping right in was a bad idea. He sunk down into the water, and immediately regretted it completely. He was 2000 meters under the sea, why did he not think this was going to hurt? The entire thing hurt. 

Even having taken a breath before diving in as he had, Bubby was almost immediately breathless, the weight of the water almost crushing the air out of his lungs. Harold was around him in an instant, and Bubby could just barely make out the green of his eyes through the water. 

If he focused on that, he felt like he’d be okay. 

Past the crushing feeling, Bubby almost felt like he was burning. It wasn’t just his chest, his legs felt like it was burning, and his neck, and everything-

God, it felt like he was going to melt, like his entire body was just going to become nothing, and this was all for nothing. He didn’t realize he had brought a hand up to scratch at his neck until Harold took his hands, holding them away from his neck. Bubby whined softly, trying to fight against it, but knew that he wouldn’t be able to get out of his grip. He still tried, until it felt like his chest would burst, and he tried to breathe 

It only hurt more, the fire only burning more in his lung, as he struggled harder, Harold only holding him a bit tighter. His eye sight went blurry, and, for just a moment, he found that green again, and relaxed, just slightly. Harold wouldn’t let him die. 

The problem with that, as Bubby passed out in his arms, was that Harold had no clue what to do. He couldn’t help, couldn’t make it better for him, couldn’t fix it, and Bubby was suffering, even when he wasn’t conscious. 

“Oh there it goes.” He heard Darnold mumble from somewhere behind him, as gills finally formed along Bubby’s neck and ribs, finally letting the man breathe again. None of them relaxed, however, as Bubby didn’t seem to relax at all either. 

It almost looked like his skin melted together, slowly and surely forming a tail, but too slowly for Harold to feel comfortable. He looked back to Darnold, who was frowning as he watched him quietly. “I don’t know what’s right here, Coomer, I wish I could calm our nerves just a bit.” 

Harold nodded, and just held Bubby closer, as his form shifted, blood drifting through the water. Gordon circled them slowly, focused inwards towards Bubby as he writhed in Harold’s grip, fins pulling free and tearing through his skin, claws and teeth sharpening, and Benrey pulled closer, peeking over Harold’s shoulder, watching carefully, as Bubby slowly, finally, relaxed into Harold’s grip, shaking. 

He just held him close, pushing them both away from the blood cloud there now, and, carefully, they surrounded them both, waiting for him to wake up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) Just wait. You'll see what he is :)


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are at the end <3

There was a light. 

That was all Bubby could see really, just a light behind his closed eyes. What was that? He lifted an arm slowly, and batted at it. 

Whatever he was laying on rumbled beneath him, and he heard Harold laugh softly. He couldn’t help the slightly loopy smile that came to his face, but, as he blinked open his eyes, he once again got distracted by this light, continuing to bat at it slowly, hands barely moving up as he swiped at it. Oh hey he claws now, that was neat. 

“Bubby, darling, that’s your light.” Bubby turned his head to the side, looking towards Harold, frowning. The light moved with him, and Harold pushed it up, settling it on his head, and Bubby couldn’t help but snicker at the sight of it, slowly tilting his head one way and the other to watch the light move a bit.

“Is he really awake?” He turned his head towards the voice, focusing in on Benrey, who blinked at him, raising a hand to wave. This was when Bubby realized he was surrounded, and slowly looked between them. 

“I hope I’m awake.” He muttered, frowning and tilting his head back like he could look in his own mouth at the teeth he knew were much sharper than before. However, he once again got distracted by the light sprouting from his head, and he batted at it again, narrowing his eyes at it. “The fuck am I...” He said, more to himself, as looked up towards the metal of the base. 

Just barely he could see himself, and Bubby frowned, looking at himself, in the slightly warped view. The light off the top of his head gave him one idea. “Angler fish?” He mumbled, and then blinked when Harold suddenly booped his nose. He looked over at him, frowning. “What?” 

“Just making sure you’re okay.” Harold mumbled, then shifted, and Bubby suddenly realized that Harold had been holding him. This only changed so that Harold could cling onto him tightly, and Bubby laughed softly, clinging back just as tightly. “Can we destroy this place now?” Harold mumbled, and Bubby laughed, squirming free and floating slightly off, frowning as he realized he had no clue what he was doing. 

“Let’s do it!” 

Considering the group, it was rather easy. Bubby, unfortunately, couldn’t get too much into the destruction floating next to Forzen, who also had no capacity to join, and instead cheered them on, especially when Harold punched a hole straight through the hull of the docking bay, beginning it’s collapse. 

They watched it die, and Bubby shifted, slowly managing to move forwards towards Harold, who scooped him up into his arms, and let him hang as the others sent Forzen off into the deep, Benrey following behind quickly. Bubby clung on, tail just barely moving as he got used to the feeling of it. Bubby grinned up at Harold, despite the fact that he couldn’t see it as he swam through the dark towards their dens. 

He was free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yea!! This was fun!!

**Author's Note:**

> Screaming into the void  
> Bubby just got a lil spook it's fine-


End file.
